Heath Ledger spent hours putting Joker make-up on to prepare for scene he wasn't even in

One of Heath Ledger's co-stars on The Dark Knight has sung the actor's praises about how dedicated he was towards making sure The Joker's presence could be felt throughout the movie.

It's hard to argue that any of the other live-action Jokers (I'm still a Mark Hamill fan at heart) come close to what Ledger was able to do, and he evan won an Oscar for his efforts in bringing the iconic Batman villain to life.

Ledger really gave the role everything, keeping a diary of the character's thoughts, working with the costume department to make the look just right and egging on Christian Bale to hit him for real.

One of Ledger's co-stars in The Dark Knight was Michael Jai White who played Gambol, the Gotham gangster who really doesn't hit it off with The Joker during his meeting with the city's crime bosses - but while their characters didn't get along, he had the highest respect for Ledger as an actor.

You might remember that in the movie things don't go well for Gambol, who puts a price on The Joker's head and soon ends up getting killed by the Clown Prince of Crime, but White was glad he got to share some scenes with Ledger.

White once spoke to ColliderLive about just how incredible it was to be acting in the same scene as Heath Ledger and how much dedication he had towards getting everything right.

Warner Bros

The actor told the story of a time Ledger went through hours of makeup to play his part in a day of shooting where he wouldn't even be on camera.

"He was so incredibly chill, the first day he comes in we shoot half of the day, he's in full make-up with cameras beside him, he's talking to the boardroom," White said.

"We break for lunch, I ask the director 'what are we shooting after lunch' and he says 'we're gonna finish up this side of the room'.

"I said 'do you mean to tell me Heath has been in hours of makeup and he's not gonna be on camera any time today' and he said 'yeah'."

"I was like wow, he just did that for us. That's for real and coming from the guy who played Spawn, hell no.

"No way would I do that. I would be in t-shirts and jeans if I don't have to be marinating in my own juices."

Warner Bros

White also said he got annoyed when people tried to claim that playing The Joker took a toll on Ledger's mental health and contributed towards his tragic death.

The actor said that kind of talk 'drives me up the wall', insisting that if you watch The Dark Knight 'you can see his playful character' and it's clear 'he's having a ball'.

White pointed towards a memorable scene where The Joker blows up a hospital shortly after confronting a badly burned Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), pausing to help himself to some of the hand sanitiser along the way and fiddling with the detonator when the final climactic blast didn't go as planned in real life.